According to the news reports on December 18, photos on the Internet show that the Xianglong (WZ-7) drone, or called Soar Dragon, has been sprayed with the Chinese Air Force’s dark gray paint, and the military emblem pattern has also appeared on the tail of the fuselage, which shows that the Xianglong strategic surveillance drone has officially entered service.
It is speculated that the Xianglong UAV is military-coded WZ-7 (Wuzhen-7), and is about 14.33 meters long, has a wingspan of 24.86 meters, an equipment load of 650 kg, a normal take-off weight of 7.5 tons, and is equipped with a WS-13 engine.
WS-13 engine features a maximum speed of 750 kilometers per hour and a combat radius of 2,500 kilometers. WZ-7 can fly continuously at an altitude of 18,000 meters to 20,000 meters for 10 hours for continuous reconnaissance and surveillance. This aircraft is also the first jet-type drone among the UAVs currently in service in China.
At the same time, Xianglong (WZ-7)’s requirements for the runway are not high. According to the news previously announced by relevant Chinese military industry company, Xianglong UAV only needs 350 meters of runway to take off, and 500 meters for landing, which is much lower than most combat aircraft.
According to other news, although Xianglong drone is not a pure stealth drone, it still has obvious stealth design in the overall design, such as the ridgeline on the side of the fuselage, the backpack air inlet, and the triangular tail nozzle, etc.
Xianglong UAV exposed this time has been greatly improved compared with the previous scaled model and prototype. The original single vertical tail has been changed to two smaller V tails, and two tail nozzles have also been added underneath the tail nozzle. The outer ventral fin and the sail structure between the wings have been shortened into a fairing cone, which is believed to be an improvement for stealth. In addition, the satellite communication antenna bulge and side-view phased array radar on the fuselage of Xianglong surveillance drone are also clearly visible.
Xianglong WZ-7 UAV is similar to the U.S. RQ-4 Global Hawk UAV, but the size is smaller. In addition to performing high-altitude reconnaissance, surveillance, and intelligence gathering tasks, and strengthening the surveillance and tracking of targets within 2,000 kilometers of the coastline, the aircraft can also provide target data for long-range anti-carrier systems such as DF-21D ballistic missiles considered by the U.S. to be uninterceptable, for more real-time and more efficient guidance.
In addition, Xianglong surveillance drone is equipped with advanced battlefield communication and electronic jamming equipment, which can be used as a high-altitude communication transfer class, and it can also fly to the opponent’s fleet to turn on electronic jamming equipment.